Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero is the primary proponent for Natural Law, and Natural Law is what our founding fathers based their entire lives on and it is what they used to govern themselves toward the establishment of this great nation.

Sir William Blackstone said about Natural Law,  “it is the only reliable basis for a stable society and a system of justice”

What is Natural Law?

A good place to start is to seek out the writings of one of the founding fathers’ favorite authors, Marcus Tullius Cicero.

It was Cicero who cut sharply through  the political astigmatism and philosophical errors of Aristotle and Plato to discover the touchtone for good laws, sound government and the long range formula for happy human relations.

Cicero projected the future of a grand society based on the principles of Natural Law and the founding fathers carried that vision forward as fulfillment of Cicero’s prophesy.  They saw in Cicero’s writings the necessary ingredients for their model society.

To Cicero the building of a society on the principles of Natural Law was nothing more nor less than recognizing and identifying the rules of right conduct with the laws of the Supreme Creator of the Universe

Natural Law is eternal and universal.

“True law is right reason in agreement  with nature. it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting. it summons to duty by its commands and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.  it is a sin to try to alter this law. Nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. we cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it.  And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens or different laws now and in the future but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times and there will be one master and ruler, that is God over us all.  For He is the Author of this law, it’s Promulgator and its enforcing Judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment.”  ~Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 BC – 43 BC

This is where I get called a racist and a bigot.  But I have a foundation and I have given sources.  If you don’t believe in God it is your choice not to, but He is real and He rules all.

[Most of what is said in this post, apart from my own words was taken from W. Cleon Skousen and his book 'The 5000 Year Leap']

Freedom of Choice and the Consequences of Liberty

We all stand on the principles, as Americans, that we are a free people and that we have our liberties; freedom of choice and liberty of will.  These are rights granted to us by our constitution.  We claim them as unalienable rights, granted to us by divine providence through the laws of Nature, Virtue and common Morality.  These are the principles of the Anglo Saxon pioneers who founded this land and established our first colonies and these are the principles our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams and George Washington followed after in drafting the timeless and inspired documents of freedom and independence that we stand on to claim these freedoms from oppressive government rule locally and around the world.

When these freedoms are encroached upon by unrighteous governmental dominion we have the responsibility as citizens of this great republic to speak our minds and make our voices heard in the halls of education, administration and before the judges who stand in place to enforce our laws and interpret our constitutional rights and freedoms.  Our administrators and judges are not in place to exercise dominion over us or to enforce laws upon us without merit or justification.  And when we find ourselves being subjected to restrictions by our government officials based on the laws that they have enacted for the gain of power and control over the freedoms of the commonwealth of the people, we have a responsibility to be informed, to understand our laws, to understand our constitutional rights and to stand up and be heard so we as brothers and sisters do not fall to the tyranny of government oppression.

I find it troubling that too many people in this day and age complain about the ills of society, about what they see as not fair or what they claim as unconstitutional, or what new laws they claim should be enacted by congress and interpreted by the courts.  These are mostly based on precedents set by previous judgments by higher courts and powerful lawyers, bending our freedoms to the wills of lobbyists and powerful special interest groups who do not serve the interests of the commonwealth and only exist to increase their own wealth and fill their pockets by greed and by ruling industry and corporations, by raising taxes, by increasing costs and by controlling the supply of goods and services to the people.

I find it troubling that too many people, when they feel oppressed in any way look to the government for solutions to their societal struggles rather than looking within themselves for answers, to stand up in the face of tyranny and choose liberty and freedom of oppressive rule and excessive restriction to natural resources, jobs and the blessings of prosperity divinely granted over time as we have grown and prospered as a nation and throughout the world.

I find it troubling that too many people seek government rule as a means to an end of social problems when these problems have been created as a result of the people themselves exercising irresponsibly the constitutional rights granted them in our founding documents.

I find it troubling that rather than with reason and the acceptance of personal responsibility, too many people point their fingers in accusation against others and find fault in the actions of others rather than looking inward for solutions to the things that trouble them.

We are not responsible for the actions of our fellow citizens, but we are responsible for the actions of ourselves and we are responsible as citizens of this free republic to hold our fellow citizens accountable for the abuse of their freedoms and their irresponsible and selfish behavior when taking advantage of unnecessary government hand outs and misguided solutions to societal ills and social problems.

We are responsible to defend the freedoms and rights we are granted in the constitutions of our own states, our community charters, the rules enacted by our local administrative bodies and the freedoms granted by the constitution and bill of rights of this nation.

We are responsible to be familiar with the words of our constitutions; our state and national constitutions, our bills of rights, the laws enacted by our legislative bodies, the powers that our elected officials are exercising over us and the rules of the judges and the precedents set by them by their interpretation of the arguments of lawyers which in many cases are presented only to justify the poor decisions of their wealthy clients and to line their pockets with the money these greedy individual can afford to pay them.  To get away with their unethical acts by circumventing the rule of law based on precedents established by the twisting of words and misinterpretation of our freedoms and liberties stated in our founding documents.

Changes in our constitutional freedoms come about by the actions of the people and the special interests of those who have power given them by their status in society because of their wealth.  For no other reason than that they have the ability to reward those who will hear them because they can most quickly satisfy the greed of the bureaucrats and line their pockets with filthy lucre rather than provide and enforce our already established laws and defend our freedoms and liberties as a great commonwealth of a virtuous and moral people.

It is time for us to stand up and be informed.  It is time for us to stand up and be educated about the things that are happening in the halls of congress and the  legislative powers that we have elected, who are now enforcing greater laws, taxes and oppression on our heads in the name of correcting problems in a private society brought on by the greed of special interest groups such as the pharmaceutical companies, medical industry and insurance conglomerates.

It is time for us to stand up and solve these problems with private industry, with technology, with the bright minds of our educated youth and the coming together of people who have vision for our future and the survival of this great nation.  To never let the oppressive rule of government bureaucracies encumber our ability to thrive and progress as a nation, as a people, as families and as individuals in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

It is time for us to come together and stand in defense of our constitution, to cast our votes responsibly and to elect individuals who have a correct understanding of morality, ethical standards and virtuous character.  To elect individuals who have their eyes and minds set on a course of healing, of progress and of constructive management of resources and who will enforce our laws as they have been established without unnecessarily enacting greater laws as some disingenuous solution to misunderstood or misinterpreted laws already passed or because of the uninformed and ignorant complaints of lazy people; to satisfy their own desires to retain the power of their offices and their status as government officials.

It is time for us to elect officials who will stand up for our freedoms to progress and to pursue life, liberty and happiness without oppressive taxation without representation, who will not encumber our progress with governmental bureaucracies established by the lust for power and for the creation of comfortable positions of status over our communities and our society.

It is time for us as a people to remind our officials that they have been elected by a commonwealth to be public servants and that they have not been elected so that they can sit in their positions of status as paid tyrants to enforce unjust restrictions over our freedoms of divinely granted will.

It is time for us to take back our states and take back our nation and take back our freedoms.  It is time for us to take back our communities.  It is time for us to take back our families from educators who grant themselves authority over our children by the mandates of the unions and the rhetoric and agendas of special interest groups who wish to control the minds of our youth to meet their ends.  To satisfy their greed and their lust for control because of their want to excuse themselves from ethical and moral behavior based on the tenets of virtue and moral character as written in our founding documents and stated by our founding fathers.

It is time for us to remind our educators and the authorities of education that we are the parents of these children and that we have given them the opportunity to educate our children and to teach them reading, writing, arithmetic, social studies, history, art, music, athletics, debate and language arts and that we pay them by our taxes and that it is our right to determine the discipline and exercise of moral authority over our children and over our families.  It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children correct principles of morality, character and virtue within the walls of our homes and to never expect our educators to be the proponents of these divine principles.

We must demand that our educators refrain from imposing their personal views of moral conduct and passive restriction on the freedoms, wills and minds of our bright and noble children and stop destroying their wills to create and express and grow into the amazing individuals who are the future generations of leadership and who will guide this country on into the future. Our children should be taught to be standards of liberty and freedom throughout the world, to spread democracy to nations around the world.

It is time!

Sources

During all the controversy I’ve created among my circle of friends and family with my thoughts and opinions I’ve come to find that they want sources for my insights.  I have failed to provide the sources of my research, therefore I am being accused of lying and making things up.

In the future I will start to cite my sources but for now I’ll say that all of what I have gathered has come from the study of a combination of sources.  Many of which will go against the  grain of many peoples comfort but these are my conclusions based on research of the best books I have found in life.  And one of the things I was taught as a child was to find truth from the best books, and I have held on to that as a standard of guidance for my life, to answer the questions I come up against throughout my trials and they have served me well as I now have inner peace and calm and I am in balance with what I believe is divine nature, God.

People in my life accuse me of many things but I have come to this by work, research, experience, living life, making mistakes, making choices, exercising reason and applying these things to my daily life.  These are all the things the people in my life who are accusing me of wrong doing are telling me to do, and I do them, and these are the results.  So why are they pointing fingers at me?  I think the confusion is with them, not with me.  I am fine and I am free.

My primary sources are the cannon of scripture from the LDS church.  The King James version of the bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, along with many translations of ancient Egyptian writings from the times of the pharaohs.  I also follow after the philosophies of the ancient Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, coupled with the reason and integrity of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams and George Washington.

Recently I have been privileged to have been enlightened by the teachings of Dr. Bruce Lipton, a microbiologist who has done stem cell research  since 1967 and who has pioneered the new bio-science of epigenetics.

Thanks for following along.  Comments are welcome,  please check your anger at the door.  This is discussion of important matters that pertain to life.  Humor is welcome always!

Photographic beauty of rusting Steele

I took this shot as I walked across the Steele bridge in Portland, OR last spring. This is an old and rusty drawbridge; a railroad bridge and a narrow two lane bridge for cars. It’s called the Steele bridge not because of its construction material but because Steele is the name of the street that runs across the bridge.

Photography and Art of Vaughn Hocksworth Brown

This is an image I created using a photograph of my friend Cydney‘s eye.  She has the most alluring and beautiful blue eyes.  They are as captivating as she is.  I overlayed an image of a drawing I did back in college.  I call this image The Eyes Have It.  A dumb title but fitting.

I shot this at Yellowstone back in the summer of 2006.  My friend Lance and I saw The Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Delta Center and drove all night to Yellowstone right after the show for a week of getaway and soul finding with nature.  What an experience that was.  Yellowstone captured my heart that week and I captured this picture.

My bro, Kajol.  His name is Aaron but we all call him Kajol, and he has a son he named Kajol for real.  He sings for a band called Alias Code and used to sing for Separation of Self before the breakup.  We did this photo shoot at the Bonneville Salt Flats, one of my favorite spots on the planet.  Kajol cut his dreads after 14 years.  He’s now a handsome respectable looking fellow who is having a slight identity crisis with the new, clean cut image.

I took this picture downtown Portland, Oregon in a parking garage.  The orange wall was a brilliant color with the black sign and stark white lettering.  Nothing special about the photo itself but I love the  lines and  color.

My friend, Leah.  She was dancing at a barn party when I snapped this pic.  She wasn’t posing, it just came out so nicely.   A nice seductive and accidental pose, I love it.  She’s a beautiful and statuesque woman, complex and wonderful.  I’d love to do a photo shoot with her.  Maybe I should ask!

A shot I took at the Art Walk in northeast Portland in the spring of 2010.  Brass Armonica was performing their musical and visual style of expression.  It was something I can dig but not something I could get into myself without large doses of mind altering chemicals.  They made for great photography subjects though!

This is the road that leads to the Bonneville Salt Flats.  It seems there is always a storm brewing in the distance while this long and lonesome road leads to the beautiful purity of the snow white plains that are the salt flats.  It is a spectacular thing to behold.

This is a silly picture but I like the colors and lighting.  Back in 2007 I was invited to the wedding of a sorority sister of my then girlfriend.  She was given the task of choosing the shoes for the bridesmaids.  I took this picture to show all the bridesmaids the subtle differences between the two pairs of shoes.  That woman taught me an appreciation for womenfolk’s shoes.